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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

When You Mess Up -- Admit It and Fix It

You know what? I make mistakes. Sometimes big ones, sometimes little ones.... but I do blunder from time to time.

I wrote a fast blog post the other night between flights from Cleveland to Denver. I had been working on the post in my head for over two weeks as part of getting my thoughts together for a presentation to 150 CFO's and other financial executives.

As part of my prep work I asked folks on Twitter to share any thoughts on what CFO's need to know about Social Media. My goal here was to make sure that I had not missed anything that would be important to the audience.

I only got a few responses, and they were in line with the information that the company sponsoring the event had asked me to cover.... but when writing the blog post I did lean on some of the advice from the Twitterians and wrapped it all into one article.

Today I got an email from a woman named Cindy Kraft (@CFOCoach). She was not happy with me, and rightly so, as I had not mentioned the Twitter people who had responded to my query in my blog post.

Here is her note:

"Shocked, Thom, that you did not give any attribution to the folks who submitted ideas to you in your recent blog post, especially since they were almost verbatim. I would never had expected that from you"

I punched out the post quickly, and most of the things were already stuff that was being covered in my presentation.... and thus it never dawned on me to mention Twitter's inspiration. I was wrong.

For what it is worth, I did share with the audience that that I had asked this question of my Twitter followers, and that several folks had chimed in with ideas. I used this as an example of how social media does have power in making us all better at our jobs. That there is a vast world of information, ideas, knowledge, inspiration, and people willing to help (once you get past all the B.S. and noise).

Alas, I have learned another lesson in how to respond when tapping into Social Media. I think many people forget that such back and forth human interactions are a source, just like a magazine article, interview or book.

I am usually pretty good at giving credit where credit is due..... but I am not perfect, and this was a new entry into remembering that a Tweet really is a resource.

Thom Singer - Professional Speaker and Author's Fan Box

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"We often seal in stone our opinions of others far too quickly. In this superficial society we can hardly know the whole person by a causal encounter. We have to invest in people to really know them. Give people a chance (and often a second chance) and you will have sweeter relationships and countless opportunities." - Thom Singer